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Governor signs bill assuring kids health insurance

By David Steves

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, page A1

PORTLAND — Thousands of Oregon children without insurance can now get coverage for their medical care — and by January the same will be true for all youngsters in the state, following Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Tuesday signing of “Healthy Kids” legislation.

The Democratic governor’s signing of House Bill 2116 into law, along with his earlier approval of a companion bill, clears the way for one of Kulongoski’s longest-sought goals: bringing all Oregon children into the ranks of the insured, especially those whose parents don’t have access to private coverage and have not met low-income standards to qualify for the state-run Oregon Health Plan.

“We will, at long last, bring health care to every Oregon child,” Kulongoski said at a gathering of lobbyists, health care bureaucrats, politicians and even a young patient at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital on the campus of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

Through a combination of increased “provider taxes” on most Oregon hospitals and a new 1 percent tax on health insurance premiums, Oregon is adding 200,000 uninsured children and poor adults to the ranks of the insured.

Combined, the two taxes will generate between $300 million and $400 million in the next two years, jumping to about $500 million in 2011-13. Hospitals eventually supported the tax, because it’s expected to be fully offset by new federal Medicaid dollars coming to Oregon by the jump in state health care spending. Insurance companies stopped short of supporting the plan, instead agreeing not to oppose it while warning that it would drive up health care costs for companies and individuals who pay for private insurance.

Kulongoski said Congress, in the midst of its own debate on overhauling health care coverage, could take a lesson from Oregon.

“Together we have set Oregon on the path to create a health care system that will be a model for the rest of the nation,” Kulongoski said.

The expansion of coverage will be phased in until it’s fully in place in January.

Dr. Bruce Goldberg, head of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the program, encouraged all families without insurance for their children to register now, either online or by telephone. Those who aren’t immediately eligible under federal poverty level guidelines will be enrolled as soon as they are eligible, Goldberg said.

Dr. Stacy Nicholson, a pediatric cancer specialist from Portland, said he looks forward to the time when he no longer will have to treat uninsured children only after their conditions have worsened.

One patient, a 14-year-old boy, came to see him with a grapefruit-sized tumor on his neck, Nicholson said. His parents had delayed treatment for months because they had no insurance for themselves or their son.

“I’ll never forget the look of fear on his face and the look of guilt on his parents’ faces as we talked about his cancer,” said Nicholson, whose young patient survived the disease.